 going to start, okay. All right, so we've just started the recording of this lecture. We're going to pray and get started. So let me just request P plus still coming in. Okay, let me request Anita go occur. Anita go occur. Can you please pray and we will get started. Thank you. Thank you for this amazing morning father. As we come before you father, we'd like to pray for the knowledge with them and the sense that we're giving a father thanks for everything that we are giving a father. We'd like to give this class into your hand father. You're going to bless us. We're going to give a pass point in your hand father. You're going to talk to us through your hand father. And as we're learning identity and kind of father, you're going to help us to remove our identity in Christ father and help each and every one those who are connected from the different part father. I'd like to give everyone into your hand father. You're going to bless us. You're going to help us. And you're going to teach us father. Thank you for everything that we did in our flight father. Thank you for everything father. We worship you and glorify your holy name father. In Jesus name we pray Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you. All right, good morning everyone. Welcome once again to the class. We are studying primarily the New Testament looking at this revelation on our identity in Christ. So just to quickly review a few things. We said that this is a revelation. The Lord Jesus spoke and said, you will receive, you will know in that day, you will know that I'm in the Father and you are in me. So he said, there's a time coming after his ascension that this revelation will be given. And he did speak a little bit about it. He's talked about the wine and the branch and so on. But then after his ascension, one of the key people to whom this revelation was given was the apostle Paul who wrote two thirds of the New Testament. So when we study the epistles, we find the apostle Paul using this phrase in Christ Jesus or in Christ, in him many, many, many times through his episodes. And so we are just studying that through and trying to understand what God has done for us in Christ. And slowly we're unpacking, we're discovering little by little. This is who God has made us to be because the Bible simply says, you're a new creation in Christ. And so we're saying, what does it mean? I'm a new creation. What does it mean? And so we want to understand our identity. We also want to understand our inhabitants because when God has brought us into Christ, he has just poured out upon our lives riches, the riches of his inheritance, the glorious riches of his inheritance. So we are trying to understand our identity, our inheritance. And then of course, most important is we want to learn how to live out of that practically while we are going through our life of faith. How do we live out of our identity and our inheritance? Well, that's our journey. We spent one lesson on understanding the new creation. Then we talked about understanding the fact that we have been justified and made righteous, which we finished last week. As a believer, you are justified. To be justified means to be just. That means without any blame. God has made you and me justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He has made us righteous, right in his eyes and a right standing with him. Therefore, anytime you and I go to pray and talk to God, we can pray before him without any sense of guilt, shame, or condemnation. And when the enemies, the enemy's main tactic is to make us feel condemned, make us feel guilty, make us feel worthless. So he comes with those accusations. He is the accuser of the brethren. So he comes with accusations. You're no good, you're useless, whatever, these kinds of thoughts. But when we know our identity in Christ, we can just discard those thoughts. Don't believe him. Don't even receive those thoughts. Because as God has said in his word, he has made me righteous. He has justified me. So I can hold my head up high, I can worship God with freedom, worship God knowing that his righteousness is on me. That's how we worship God. So we looked at that. Today we will move forward into the next PDF, which is lesson number four, the fourth PDF. But we talk about sanctified and made holy. So the word sanctified, and so I will let me share the PDF so we could follow along. This is available to you in the classwork section already. We'll just share it here. Okay, so sanctified, made holy. Now, just a little background here. Because in the New Testament, especially if you look at the New King James, you will find the word sanctify. You'll find the word holy. You'll also find the word sanctification. You'll also find the word holiness. So I don't want us to get thrown off by these words. They all actually come from the same Greek word. Just that in the English Bible in different places, sometimes the translators translated as sanctify. Sometimes they translate as holy. Sometimes they may translate as sanctification. Sometimes it sounds as holiness, but it's the same Greek word or words. You know, some are adjectives and some are verbs anyway. So the point is they mean the same thing. So as we look at the scriptures and when you read sanctify holy or sanctification holiness, in your mind just say, hey, it's the same thing. Don't get confused. It's just the same thing. What does it mean? It simply means that you have been consecrated or dedicated to God. You have been separated, separated and set apart, dedicated to God. Dedicated, consecrated to God. So what God has done for us in Christ is, he says, I've set you apart for myself. I have sanctified you. I've hallowed you. I have consecrated you. I've dedicated you for myself. And we're going to look at scriptures. And so what we find is that God has already done this for us and he's already sanctified us. So spiritually, you are a sanctified person. You are a holy person and God has granted you the state of holiness, of being holy. He's given it. But then he says, I've done this for you spiritually. Now live out of that in your everyday life. So that's what we are going to discover. Like we said in the very beginning, God completes the work for us. And he tells us to live out of that in our everyday life. So spiritually, he's done it for us. He completes the work. Then he says, in your everyday life on earth, live out of that, that is your identity. You are a holy person. You're somebody who's been sanctified. So live like that. So when you and I face the filth of this world, meaning the sin and the corruption and the moral decadence in the world, we just have to remind ourselves who we really are. Hey, I am a sanctified person. So do I want to go and make myself dirty with all of that? No, God has sanctified me for himself. So I refuse the filth. I refuse the sin. I refuse the corruption, the moral degradation. I refuse it because I realize I'm already holy. I'll just think about this, right? I mean, this is just an analogy. Suppose you, you know, you put on some really good clothes, a really nice suit or a nice, whatever, you know, very nice clothes. You're not going to go out there and, you know, get yourself dirty, sit on the ground or on a bench that is dirty. You're going to avoid those kinds of things. Why? Because you realize what's, what you're carrying. It's the normal response. I mean, this isn't the natural. Now that's how it is also in the spiritual, just that we don't think about it. But hopefully once we do this, this lesson on sanctification, we will understand that this is who you are. And therefore you just say, hey, I'm a holy person. I don't need those things. And you shun those things. Okay. So, so the first thing in this journey is to understand that Christ is our sanctification. Could somebody please read these two scriptures for us first Corinthians one verse 30 and also Ephesians one and verse four. Could somebody read that for us please? First Corinthians chapter one verse 30 but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Ephesians chapter one verse four just ask Jesus, Jesus in him before the foundation of the word that we should be holy and without leave before him in love. Amen. Thank you. So look at these scriptures. But of him that is because of God. You are in Christ Jesus. So that's what we are studying. You are in Christ Jesus. So we affirm I am in Christ Jesus. Okay. And what about being in Christ? Who became for us? Christ became for us. What is done from God and righteousness. So righteousness. We've studied that in the previous lesson. Christ is our righteousness. We are justified and sanctification. So you can translate this word holiness. So Christ became for us our holiness, our sanctification or you can understand it like this. When God brought us into Christ because we are in Christ. Christ said from this moment, I'm sanctifying you. I'm making you holy. I'm setting you apart for myself. I'm consecrating you. I'm dedicating you for myself. Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our holiness. Christ on me makes me set apart for God. Christ to me consecrates me to God. I am in him and therefore Christ has set me apart for himself. So the moment you came into Christ, Christ said, here you are set apart for God. You're in me from this moment on. You're dedicated. You're sanctified. You're holy. So the moment you came into Christ, that moment you were set apart for God. You're made holy to God. Same thing in Ephesians 1.4. He says he chose us in him. That's what we are studying, being in Christ. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy is the same word. That we should be sanctified or holy. So he chose us in him so that we should be holy. We should be consecrated, dedicated, set apart people. So in him you are a holy person. You're a set apart person. So just to help us understand the difference between righteousness and holiness, righteousness means there is no blame. Holiness means there is no sin. Righteousness means you're blameless. There's no act of sin. Righteousness, there is no condemnation against you. Holiness, there is no sin in you. So God is saying you are a holiness to him. You've been separated from sin unto God. And God is righteous. God is holy. And he is of a holiness. That's the only reason we're able to stand in his presence. So we continue in this thought of just understanding that God has sanctified us in Christ. We look at a couple of more scriptures. Somebody could read for us. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2. And then somebody could also read 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11, please. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1 verse 2. To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. And somebody else, please, for Corinthians 6 verses 9 through 11, please. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 to 11. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkers, nor revelers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our Lord, by the spirit of our God. Thank you. All right. Look at these scriptures again. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 3 says, To the church of God, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. So again, sanctified saints. Come from the same Greek word. Haggios. Haggios simply means sanctify. Haggios. And Haggioi, the saints, same root word. So he's saying, we believers are sanctified in Christ Jesus. So you are a sanctified person in Christ Jesus. And this is your calling. This is our calling. Your call to be saints. Or saints simply means sanctified ones. So they're the same word, root word. So saints simply means you're a sanctified one. You're a holy one. You're a dedicated one. You're a consecrated one. So he's saying, believers, whom is he talking to? And all who call on the name of Jesus Christ. So it's all of us. So every believer is a holy person. As is a consecrated person in Christ Jesus. So God has done it for us. And the same thing. In 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, he says, look, he lists all kinds of sinful life, living. And he says, such were some of you. In other words, this was the background for some people. But now, what's happened? You've been washed. You were sanctified. So it's already happened. You were sanctified. You were living like this, but God said, I'm taking you out of all of that. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mother spirit of our God. So as a believer, you need to know, regardless of what your past was, regardless of what our past was today, and the moment we gave our faith in Christ, we were sanctified. He's done it for us. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus. Right? So what I want us to understand is this. For the believer, sanctification or holiness is something we start out from in a Christian life and not something we attain through a Christian life. Okay. Think about this with me. Think about this with me. The Bible is saying you are sanctified in Christ Jesus. The Bible is saying you are a saint. The Bible is saying you were sanctified. That means God has finished the work in Christ. You talk about in Christ. Now, everyday life, of course, we're being sanctified, but I'm talking about in Christ Jesus. In Christ. So what you and I must understand that we are starting from this place. We begin our Christian life as people who have been sanctified. He has already done it. We are not trying to become that. We are that. Christ is our sanctification. Right? And so in daily life, we live out of our state of being sanctified by the power of the word of God and the spirit of God. That means I know I'm sanctified. So I'm going to live like that in everyday life by the word of God and by the Holy Spirit helping me. Right? So I'm living out of holiness. I'm not striving for, I'm living out of holiness. I'm not striving for holiness. That I want us to understand very clearly because this is so important for living a holy life. You see, most of the time we hear people say be holy, be holy. Don't do this. Don't do that. Be holy. And we are thinking, how do I do it? How can I be holy? God has started off like this. God has made you holy. You are holy. Therefore, you're going to be holy. Therefore, be holy. And this is all the scriptures teach us. If you look at Florence II Corinthians 7.1, it says, you know, he talks about the fact that, you know, God has set us apart for himself. And then he says, therefore, having these promises, we cleanse ourselves. That means because we have this, we're keeping ourselves clean inside and outside. We are keeping ourselves clean. And here we are walking in this holiness, in the fear of God. Why we do it? Because we have these promises. Because God has done it for us. We are walking this way. So, this is so important. The moment an unclean thought comes into your mind, you reject it. You don't even entertain it. Why? You're a holy person. You say, hey, I'm a holy person. I don't need to entertain those thoughts in my mind. If somebody comes and presents something unholy to you, say, no, no, no. This is not for me. I am a holy person. This is not for me. Right? Because I am created in righteousness and true holiness. That's the visions to 4 verse 24. You're inner person. Your new creation is created in true holiness. Right? So, what I want to help us understand at this moment, and I just pause here, is that you are a holy person. You are sanctified. And therefore, you live from that place of being sanctified. Is it clear so far? Any questions? There's a lot more. But I just want to pause, make sure we are all together so far. I haven't lost anybody. Yes? Okay. Go ahead with the question, please. Thank you, Basta. My question was regarding, is it like it is done in the past? I'm sanctified and I live out of it. And I'm being sanctified. It is a continual process. Is it a two-part? Is it like that? Yes. So, there are two sides to this. On the spiritual side, the work is done because you are in Christ. That is your spiritual position. You're in Christ. This is your inheritance. This is what God has given you. He says, I've made you a saint. Practical side. That is daily life. We are being sanctified. That means on a daily basis, I'm putting the filthiness. I'm cleansing myself for all filthiness. Just putting it all away. Putting it all away so that my practical daily life conforms to my spiritual identity in Christ. That what God has done for me in Christ. But I must remember that's who I am in the Spirit. Spiritually, God has sanctified you. Spiritually, God has made you holy for Himself. So that is the motivation to live holy on a daily basis. Because you are holy. He has set you apart. He has consecrated you for Himself in Christ. Okay, okay. Thank you. Thank you, Beth. Good. Any other questions? Anything else? Okay. So we're going to go forward. Feel free to... I'll pause from time to time just to see if there are any questions. Let's go back to where we were. All right. So building on this, it's like we said, which this 1st Corinthians 1 of verse 2, we are called to be saints, saints. So as I mentioned here, the word saints are simply, it's the same Greek word, hagi oi, which means we are sanctified ones, holy ones in Christ. Right. So in many of Paul's episodes, he addresses believers as saints. So every believer is a saint. Every believer is a sanctified person or a holy person. And you can see in so many of the opening of many of his episodes, he calls believers, he says Romans, he calls them. He says, you're called to be saints, over and over again. He says, Ephesians, he says, you are the saints, Philippians greet every saint. So every believer is a saint to Colossians. He says, over and over again, you find in Paul's episodes, when he looks at believers, he sees them as holy people. He says, you are saints. You're a consecrated person. You're a holy person. You're a dedicated person. So he sees believers as saints of God. Right. So every believer is a holy person, a dedicated person. Right. And so, you know, even to Timothy, he says, you know, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling. The calling of a believer is a holy calling. It's a calling to be a holy person, a sanctified person, a set-apart person. So not only are we individually holy, but the Bible says collectively, that means as a community, we are holy. So I will just look at some scriptures here on that. Ephesians 2, 21 and 22. Could somebody read that for us, please? Ephesians 2, 21 to 22. 21, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Number 22, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Thank you. So he's telling believers. Now he's speaking to collectively, believers collectively. He says, you know, believers, all of us, we are like a building, you know, that's being fitted together. So brick on, brick by brick, this whole building is being assembled and it's coming up. But what is this building about? It is actually a holy temple in the Lord. Meaning it is, if you say a holy temple, simply means a sacred place, a consecrated building, a dedicated building. Now why is it a holy temple? Why is the community of believers? So we're not talking about a physical building. He's talking about believers together, collectively. We are a holy people. Why? Because we are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. That means this community of believers is actually God's dwelling place. God is dwelling here. And obviously where God is, it's a holy place because God is absolutely holy. So this place where God is dwelling is a holy place. It's a temple. It's a dwelling place of God. So we must also remember this. Not only are we individually holy, but as a community, as a believers, as a group of believers, wherever, you know, local churches, every local church, every community of believers, we are the dwelling place of God. We are a holy people unto God. And you find this repeated, of course, in many places in scripture. You know, 1 Corinthians 3, 16 and 17, the Apostle of Thumb says, don't you know that you are the temple of God and God's spirit is in you? So don't defile the temple of God. So, you know, we respect that the community must be kept holy. So it says, because the temple of God is holy. This temple of God is referring to, of course, not only individually am I a temple of God, but collectively we are the temple of God. So both individually and collectively, we want to keep things holy, keep things consecrated, keep it free from, you know, any filthiness and so on. But you start off with this understanding that we are the temple of God. We are the dwelling place of God. We are sanctified. We are holy people. But now, like we mentioned a little while back, there is the practical side to it. So spiritually, this is what God has done for us in Christ. We are holy, we are sanctified. But in everyday life, we understand that we are being sanctified. That means little by little, progressively, the things that are not pleasing to God are being taken out of our lives. We are letting them go, we are getting rid of them from our lives. So that is the process of being sanctified, of being made holy, living holy lives on a daily basis. So let's read this. This is from Hebrews chapter 10. We are reading selected verses, verses 9 and 10, verses 14 and 29. Could somebody read that please for us? Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will of God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. By that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. How much worse punishment do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace? So we just picked up different verses here from chapter 10 of Hebrews. But I want you to see something very interesting. So first he says in verse 10, that basically when Jesus came, he established the covenant. And by that covenant, he says, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ. That means through what Jesus did on the cross, through the covenant he established, we have been sanctified. We've been set apart for God. God is saying, oh, I've set you apart for me. But later on in the same chapter he says, those of us, you know, he has already perfected us forever. He has perfected forever. He's completed the work. Yet we are being sanctified. So on the one hand, we have been sanctified and we have been perfected through what Christ did for us on the cross. But then in everyday life, we are being sanctified. It's an ongoing thing. It's happening now, right? And, you know, he later on in the chapter, he talks about people who have discounted the blood of the covenant by which they have were sanctified. That means they turned away from it. They walked away from it. So he's addressing them. But notice it's the blood of the covenant by which we were sanctified. So what I want to understand is we have been sanctified, but we are being sanctified. So this is in Christ spiritually. This has happened practically. We are being sanctified day to day on a daily basis. Right? So through what Christ did for us through his death, he has presented us wholly sanctified. Then it's through the cross of Jesus. The work has been done. He's made us holy. He's consecrated us to God. Now we are living out of that in everyday life. So how do we do this? How do we live out of this? So we are going to depend on the word of God. I'll skip that verse here. He sanctifies us by the word of God, by the washing of the word. So how does the Lord sanctify us? It's an ongoing thing. So it's talking about the church. The Christ is sanctifying, cleansing her with a washing of water by the word. So currently what is Jesus doing to the church? He is cleansing her. He is sanctifying her by the word of God. So in practice, how can we keep our lives clean? How can we keep our lives wholly set apart for God? Practically. It happens by the word and the spirit. By the word and the spirit. So the word of God is the cleansing agent that washes the filth and brings into bear the holiness of God over our being. So this is very important. The word of God. How can you and I walk in holiness? Number one, the word of God. That as we open our lives to the word of God, what happens? It brings into us the cleansing. It exerts the power of God's holiness over our being and causing the filthiness, meaning anything that is sinful, anything that's displeasing to God to be washed out of our lives. So that's why we constantly expose ourselves to the word by reading the word, by listening to the word, being preached or taught. We constantly let the word of God flow into us because as the word comes into us, it keeps cleansing us and keeps exerting holiness into our lives. The second important aspect we must understand practically is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the spirit of holiness. Of course, that's why it's called the Holy Spirit. He's a spirit of holiness. That means wherever he is, he brings the influence of the holiness of God. Wherever he is, the holiness of God is. He is the Holy Spirit. So as we yield ourselves to him, he imparts to us that grace to live holy lives, to get rid of sin in our lives. Let's have a look at more of this in a future section. I'm just giving us the scriptures here. So how do we live this out in everyday life? How do we live sanctified in Christ? We know we are sanctified in Christ. How do we live sanctified in Christ? What are the instructions the scriptures give us? I'm just going to present some. Let's look at the practical side of things. First, we must hold ourselves in a holiness and honor. We're going to look at this passage. Could somebody read this for us? 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 1 through 7, please. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1 to 7. Finally, then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you recede from us how you are to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles, who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the Avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness. Amen. So, he's writing to the believers. Paul is writing to the believers in Thessalonica. He says, I want to remind you how you're supposed to live, in a way that's pleasing to God. And I want to remind you of the commandments, the instructions we gave you through Jesus. And then he says, this is God's will for you. What is God's will for you? Your sanctification. Your living holy. And part of living holy life is abstaining from sexual immorality. And each one, each one of us should know how to possess, that is, how to hold our own vessel. So, he's looking at the body as a vessel. So, each one of us should know how to possess our own vessel, this body, in holiness. That word, sanctification, means holiness. That means you hold your body in holiness and honor in a way that's honorable of God or pleasing to God. So, he says, see, this is God's will for you. What is it? That you're holiness, that you should be holy. Stay away from all immorality and hold your own vessel in holiness and honor for God. And don't give in to lustful passions like, you know, those people who don't know God because you know God. So, don't follow their example. They don't know God. They don't know better. They're living like that. And don't take advantage and, you know, pull any other brother into sin, right? So, it's not only about yourself, but also don't have a negative influence on other, another brother, another person in the Lord, right? Don't do that. Don't be a reason to cause another brother to go into holiness. God is watching and God himself will avenge that. Verse 7, remember, God did not call us doing cleanest, but in holiness, in holiness. So, what is the instruction he's giving us? Firstly, he says, see, you are sanctified in Christ. So, in everyday life, understand God wants you to be holy and hold your own vessel in holiness and honor. And don't give in to the lustful passions like the people who don't know God. And help other, your brothers, help them also to live holy. Don't be the reason for them to go into, you know, sin. You help others to be holy, because God has called all of us, he's about to call all of us to holiness. So, in everyday life, possessing your own vessel, your own body, yourself in holiness and honor, possessing yourself, so you are in charge. So, I'm going to keep this holy and in honor before God. So, like I said in the beginning, when sin is presented to us, whatever way, maybe some friends invite us, come, let's go do something wrong. No, sorry. Why? Because I want to possess this vessel, this body in holiness and honor. Sometimes you're being tempted by various things. Say no to that temptation. Why? I have to possess my vessel in holiness and honor. Because I am holy, God has called us to be holy. So, that's the first thing. I'm taking charge of my vessel. You take charge of your vessel and say, this vessel is going to be holy, it's going to be kept holy, it's going to be kept in honor before God. Okay, then we must walk in love to walk in holiness. Okay, let's pause here. We will take a break and we will come back and read these two scriptures because we'll take some time to explain that. Walk in love to walk in holiness. Okay, any questions so far? You're all with me and I've gone through this chapter. Very simple. Quickly, everybody's with me so far. Okay, all right. Okay, great. Thank you. All right, so let's take a quick break. We'll take a quick 10 minute break. We'll come back. We were talking about the practical side of living holy. So, we will go through that. So, I'll see you all in 10 minutes and just take a quick break and we'll be back. Thank you.